VPR Cast#95: “ihatemmorpgs.com”

Welcome to our 95th mmo podcast at mmoSmacktalk.com! Straight from Copenhagen, Sweden we have a fresh voice with a different perspective on mmos than you’re used to hearing. Please be aware that his opinions might cause you to spill your purse.

RE UI’s: I am completely fine with Darkfall’s UI. I mentioned DFO only because I’ve heard and read plenty of complaints about it. The fact is though, that I actually like DFO’s UI; however, given what I know about it, and other games, I can appreciate differences of opinion here. RE MO… no further comments.

Yup you guys are fine with it but the majority of gamers are not. No one wants to waste time figuring out the damn UI or having to get use to it. You should be spending that time figuring out and getting use to the game it’s self.

@ray ray Not only that if a game requires players to use scripts, macros, etc. Then they need to make it easy. EQ to date is has the best macro system that I have ever seen built into an MMO. You can set it to delay actions, etc with values. Playing DFO is more like a life style and a game for single men who have a lot of time on their hands to figure this out. Ryan before you say something, remember that you are a programmer and your average person is not. You have an edge as the rest of us will have a learning curve. However, ArcheAge Online looks like they are using a standard UI from what I have seen. However, being that they are taking this take for Korea, will most like make it a grinder. This is the style of most Korea MMO’s, who know we shall see. I really want to like and play a good Sandbox MMO’s. However, the DEV’s for these games are making very hard for me to like it. I want to like but they need to understand you can’t have a game with a cool concept and then make a shitty interface and game design. Also, maybe Planet Side 2 will be a Sandbox like the first one.

@IHM I love how you used Chrono Trigger as the example. That’s the thing I loved about 2d graphics is the initial artists drawings translates exactly as it is for 2d. With 3d a lot gets lost in the translation, unless you have a really good artist. Now a days gamers expect a certian good look to games with advanced as technology is. I have to agree with that. When you have a game that plays unpolished and looks unpolished, this makes the game less appealing to play. I keep referring back to EQ but it’s graphics are polished the the engine and time that they were created. The game it’s self feels polished and the controls, aka play control are solid. Granted Sony has a much bigger team then MO. However, MO is out in a very Alpha state. If you have watched this video, the game feels the exact same way. When I see shit like this, it’s usually right as it says alot about the company who makes the game.

@ray ray: for some reason I feel like Coolit said that he had a chance to play it, and I feel like he said it was kind of cool. Who knows, I might be making that up (false memory), but I dont think so.

@rayray
Going to try the PVP in Tera this weekend. I seriously doubt there will be any item drops or real penalty for loosing at pvp. There are too many pussy mmo players to risk having a game worth playing. I’ll let you know. Otherwise Ill see you all in Agon.

Veteran players can fly more ships well. Newer players fly less ships well. It only takes a few weeks for a new player to catch up and become very effective in all sorts of fleets. They will just have limited options as to what type of ship to fly. The 100 million skillpoint player in a supercarrier and the 10 million skillpoint player in an interceptor will have vastly different roles on the battlefield. You are never really trying to catch up in Eve. You are just slowly opening up more play options for yourself.

As said in the podcast it is not an old school space sim game. There is no direct control of your ship with a joystick. However you can manually fly your ship and that is a must in many pvp situations. So while the game doesnt give you the dogfighting feel of the traditional space games, you do become absorbed with the various tactics, range control, and maneuvering for the upper hand. The first week in the game is usually where you either decide that the lack of joystic type of direct controls is ok or not acceptable. But….go play black prophecy. A space mmo with traditional controls. You will be extremely bored an hour or two in and highly disappointed with the lack of depth.

An interesting game that sort of gets the best of both worlds is Perpetuum. Rips off so much of eve but uses WASD controls. Combat and pvp in that game are wildly entertaining and you get some of the great strategy of Eve mixed in with direct control of your bot. It just lacks the years of content development that Eve has.

Wait, so what you’re saying is that you’re not playing “catch up”, but it sounds to me like you go on to explain how you will not ever catch up in terms of which ships you have access to. Regardless of what role you have in your fleet, it still seems like you’re limited to a specific role until you have played for 3 years. By the time 3 years have passed, they will undoubtedly have added something that only 6 year old players can use. It just seems broken to me.

I really only played until I wanted to rip my hair out because I didn’t have anyone to explain anything to me and the first impression the game gives is not so great. Their development staff has also said in multiple interviews that they’re not interested in making a game that is easy for new players to get into.

My point is that you do not need to catch up to play an important and effective role in pvp fleet fights.

Large null sec blocs role out with shit tons of drakes that a 2-3 month player can fly very effectively.

Much of the solo pvp fights is frigates and cruisers that you can fly effectively very fast.

And lastly you reach a certain point with your toon that you can find your niche inside any fleet no matter the situation after only a year or two in the game.

Keep in mind too that the 30 million skillpoint player in a battleship can barely hit or track the newbie in his rifter hull. Put that same guy in a rifter and the fight is suddenly even. A fleet of 90 rifters just this weekend flew deep into null sec to fuck around and killed a null sec blocs sub cap fleet and and a capital dreadnought ship.

@ray ray, coolit almost got me into this game, but then he quit playing. I think he said that you can’t attack other players in their zone, that you have to meet in some middle territory. I also feel like he mentioned that pvp is infrequent. So if you dont care about the thrill of pvp, then it might be good. The crafting certainly looks interesting to me.

Since we played though they have put in a territory control area that is in a separate zone that it seems to have some cool features. Also the new state of the game blog says they are revamping the global pvp to be more similar. So definitely it appears to me the game is doing things right.